Mycena News MSSF Meeting the Mycological Society of San Francisco September, 2006, Vol 57:09 Mycodigest: Pioneers of California Mycology: W.A
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Speaker for September 19 Mycena News MSSF Meeting The Mycological Society of San Francisco September, 2006, vol 57:09 MycoDigest: Pioneers of California Mycology: W.A. Murrill and the Fungi of the Pacific Coast Peter Werner In previous MycoDigest columns, we’ve focused on recent discoveries in myco- logical science. Upcoming columns will continue in this vein, but in this column, I want to introduce a new series of articles I’m calling “Pioneers of California Mycology”, Jennifer Kerekes focusing on the early discoverers and contributors to our knowledge of the mycota of California. This knowledge is the result of over a century of mycological Jennifer Kerekes, a graduate exploration by both academic mycologists and serious amateurs. All of our distinct student at San Francisco State California species and collecting spots were once unknown and undescribed and University and winner of the MSSF there are interesting stories to be told about their discovery. In future columns, I will scholarship, will be our speaker at cover the stories of HW Harkness, Lee Bonar, Elizabeth Morse, William Bridge the September general meeting. She Cooke, Harry Thiers, and other great figures who made invaluable contributions to will be presenting the results of her California mycology over the years. master’s thesis on the genus Crinipellis from Southeast Asia under the William Alphonso Murrill is one of the great names in the history of mycology, direction of Dr. Dennis Desjardin. having over the course of his career, founded the journal Mycologia, published dozens Her talk will also include a basic of papers, originated scores of new names of fungal taxa, and traveled extensively to introduction to different molecular describe the mycota of Europe and the Americas. He was also an early “mycological techniques and will describe how evangelist” – a charismatic figure and frequent public speaker whose knowledge and molecular techniques have improved enthusiasm for the study of fungi broadened the interest in mycology in a nation with our understanding of fungal little established tradition of mushroom hunting. evolution, sometimes in surprising ways, and also have presented new Murrill began his career as a curator at the New York Botanical Garden, challenges. eventually rising to the rank of Assistant Director of the Garden. Since Murrill filled mycologist Franklin Sumner Earle’s position at NYBG after the latter had left, Murrill For a photo of Crinipellis was put in charge of mycological research at the Garden. As part of his work for the perniciosa, please turn to page 3. NYBG, Murrill traveled extensively to collect and describe new species of fungi. He traveled throughout the eastern United States, made several trips to Europe, as well as Mexico and the Caribbean, and to the Pacific Coast. CONTENTS It was during one of these journeys that Murrill had the first of several disappearances. At some point during his 1918 trip to Europe, his usual packages of Speaker for September 19............................1 collections and correspondence ceased arriving and he failed to arrive back in Europe MycoDigest: W.A. Murrill.........................1 as scheduled. Inquiries to his colleagues at European herbaria failed to turn up any news of his whereabouts. He turned up several months later back in New York with MSSF Culinary Group................................2 news that he had fallen severely ill with a kidney condition and had been held up in Foragers' Report .........................................3 hospital in a small French village without means of communication. Unfortunately, he also returned to find that his wife had left and sued for divorce and that the NYBG Cultivation Corner.......................................4 Continued on page2 Healthy Fungi................................................5 MycoDigest is a section of the Mycena News dedicated to the scientific reiew of Calendar ........................................................8 recent mycological information. Page 2 The Mycena News, September, 2006 The MSSF MycoDigest: W.A. Murrill Continued from page 1 had fired him from his position as Assistant Director, demoting him to a token public outreach position at a much-reduced Culinary Group salary. If you are new to the MSSF you may not be acquainted After 5 more years in this capacity, Murrill handed in his with one of its most lively sub-groups, the Culinary Group, resignation from the Garden and soon disappeared again. This open to all members interested in the gastronomical aspects of time, Murrill abandoned academic work entirely and his mushrooming. On the first Monday night of each month, from whereabouts were unknown to his colleagues back in New September to May (except for December when we have the York. This would have been the end of an otherwise great general group’s grand holiday feast) we meet in the Hall of academic career, but for a chance event a few years later. Flowers, Golden Gate Park, to enjoy each other’s company and have a delicious meal. In 1926, George F Weber, a mycologist and plant pathologist from University of Florida, was visiting a Gainesville We are united in our love of cooking as well as our love resort called the Tin Can Tourist Camp along with his wife. In of mushrooms. All participants contribute to the feast either as the recreation hall, they came across and unkempt and haggard, part of the team that prepares the dinner or by bringing an yet “tall, robust, dignified, pleasant stranger providing a piano appetizer to share. At the dinner meetings members contribute concert for the transient tourists”. Weber soon recognized the ideas and suggestions for the upcoming menus and prepare stranger as none other than Murrill. food that they, with help, would like to cook. Traditionally, the dinners have been designed to take advantage of the wild The next Summer, while convalescing from his recurring mushrooms available at the time as well as the best and the kidney problem at the University of Florida Infirmary, Murrill freshest food of the season. The menus are centered on found that it was now the peak of the Florida mushroom mushrooms, ethnic foods, a particular main ingredient or a season, and asked Weber for some collecting supplies, a desk, close holiday. The aim is for “chef-for-the-night” members to and a microscope. Weber set Murrill up with a permanent desk prepare menus and cook foods they love. And, we usually have and research space in the only spot he could find – a landing on a lovely punch served with the appetizers. a stairway near the University Herbarium. Weber also arranged for a remaining $600 in publication royalties to be sent to Murill To be part of the fun and food, you must be a current and managed to get a small stipend for him. Murrill permanently MSSF member. The annual fee is $12.00 ($6.00 for seniors) and relocated to Florida, building a small house, and spending the there is a charge of $14.00 per dinner to cover the cost of using last 34 years of his life there. the facility and the dinner’s ingredients. Diners bring their own cutlery, plates, etc and their choice of beverage. Murrill became a familiar figure around the Gainesville campus, known by many simply as “the Mushroom Man”. All members participate at least once a year in the During the mushroom season, he would spend the morning preparation of the main dinner. Members also bring appetizers gathering fungi in and around the campus, then return to his for dinners, using mushrooms if possible, when not involved desk to describe and curate the collections. He would rarely in the main menu preparation. return home during this time, but would work late into the evening, then fall asleep on a couch in the student union. The The Culinary Group is a participatory cooking group, not next morning the incoming students would rouse him and just an eating group. Members should expect to cook for often treat him to breakfast. dinners and help with special MSSF fund-raising events, such as the Holiday Dinner, the Mendocino Woodlands Foray and During his years at Gainesville, he was also frequently the annual Fungus Fair. visited by other eminent mycologists such as AH Smith, LR Hesler, and Rolf Singer. Singer was a frequent visitor, and the Come join us, you lovers of cooking and conviviality! For debates between Singer and Murrill on the finer points of more information, contact Pat George at 510-204-9130 or fungal taxonomy were often made plain to anyone within [email protected]. shouting distance of the University Herbarium. Murrill’s contribution to California mycology came out of his collecting trip to the Pacific Coast States in fall of 1911, while Mycena News is the newsletter of the Mycological he was still at NYBG. Murrill came to the West Coast by several Society of San Francisco and is published monthly from days train journey. He arrived first in Seattle in late October, September through May. Please email newsletter submis- collecting extensively at the University of Washington campus sions to: [email protected]. and in the city parks. He then traveled and collected in such locales as Mt Rainier, the Willamette Valley, and the Oregon Editor: William Karpowicz Coast before moving on to California. His collecting in Layout: Ruth Erznoznik California was limited to the Bay Area over the period of one Printing/Mailing: PDQ, Oakland, CA Continued on page 6 The Mycena News, September, 2006 Page 3 Some good summer rains in the Sierra will guarantee fall The Foragers’ Report porcini (a favorite bolete of many). Matsutakes are beginning to be found near Crescent, September 2006 Oregon. Sulfur shelves should be soon coming in our area. (Check your local listings as to exactly where . .) Patrick Hamilton Do we do a recipe to help herald our high hopes? Sure.